AFTER PRESIDENCY, TRUMP WILL HAVE SERIOUS LEGAL ISSUES

 

                                  …Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney

 

Donald Trump had better have some very good lawyers

 

You may have heard that Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, is suing him and his siblings over a multimillion-dollar inheritance dispute.

But that is only one issue that the current president is going to have to deal with after he leaves the White House.

As we speak, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has retained an accounting specialists to aid its criminal investigation of President Trump and his business operations.  This is as these Manhattan prosecutors are ramping up their investigation of Trump’s company real estate transactions.

The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance opened the investigation in 2018 to examine the hush-money payments made to two women who, during Trump’s first presidential campaign, claimed to have had affairs with him years earlier. The probe has since expanded, and now includes the Trump Organization's activities more broadly.  Vance’s office has suggested in court filings that bank, tax and insurance fraud are areas of exploration.

Vance has just contracted with FTI Consulting (Future Technologies Inc.) to look for irregularities among a variety of property deals.  FTI will advise the district attorney on whether the president’s company manipulated the value of his assets to obtain favorable interest rates and tax breaks. The probe is believed to deal with transactions spanning several years.  Headquartered in Washington, FTI provides a range of financial advisory services to clients worldwide in both public and corporate sectors.

These analysts hired by Vance have already reviewed various bank and mortgage records obtained from Trump’s company as part of an ongoing grand jury investigation.  They [FTI] could be called on to testify about their findings, should the district attorney eventually bring criminal charges against Trump

Spokespersons for Vance and FTI Consulting declined to comment.  In the past, Trump’s company officials have rejected the merits of Vance’s investigation.  They have of course, called the investigation, “politically motivated”.

But the Vance investigation and the Mary Trump suite are just a couple of Trump’s problems. 

Here are some other issue that trump will be dealing with after Joe Biden’s inauguration.

• Trump received a 21 million dollar tax break for saving the forest outside his New York mansion.  But now that tax break is under investigation.

• The US Supreme Court rejected Trump’s argument that, as president, he is immune from state court proceedings. (As president, Trump has only been immune to federal court proceedings, while in office.)  He has argued that the subpoena for his financial information amounts to political “harassment” and was issued in “bad faith.”

• Trump has a 400 million dollar Deutsche Bank loan that will be coming due within the next few years.

• Donald Trump today faces two separate defamation lawsuits brought by two women who have accused him of sexual assault.

• Vance’s probe is just one of two investigations in New York that could pose serious legal peril for the president, once he leaves office next month.  New York Attorney General, Letitia James, is overseeing a civil investigation into the Trump Organization and its business operations

• Trump is also being sued by the tenants of several apartment buildings his family once owned, and by people who say they saw no profit after joining a multilevel marketing organization touted by Trump and his children.

And who knows what other issues will surface after Trump leaves office.  It is appearing that there are a number of additional issues that could develop into troubles for Trump.

It may be that Mr. Trump will find out that the worst thing that Trump ever did was to run for and to win the 2016 presidential election.

Copyright G. Ater 2020